MONEY IS KILLING THE CHAMPIONS LEAGUE
Tuesday, June 24th, 2008 by Stuart Stratford
Michel Platini made it a core element of his election campaign when seeking the highest office at UEFA that the game is not about the top clubs, it is an all-inclusive sport which should distribute its wealth more evenly.
With the news that the English clubs took over £100m from television and sponsorship revenues from the 2007-08 Champions League, the time for some redistribution appears nigh. Proposals are being made to the clubs and league representatives on the European Strategy Council that as from 2012, the Champions League pot should be shared more equally amongst participants rather than the current heavy focus on the bigger clubs.
The problem for Platini is that this is tantamount to asking Turkeys to vote for Christmas. Should the clubs accept the proposals, they will be reducing their revenues. In order to make good this shortfall, other streams must increase, the primary target will be ticket prices and merchandise, both of which hit fans pockets hard already.
There is little doubt that a deal will be struck but fans are right to question what Platini is doing for them to compensate. The answer is very little visible support is coming from the top. Focussing on the smaller clubs may be good for him politically but it reinforces the belief that no one official is a ‘Fans Champion’, that they are all too concerned with the brand to realise that their ‘product’ is in danger of imploding. Whilst UEFA may want to open the doors to the biggest party in club football, for the majority of clubs they remain firmly shut. This leads to a wide imbalance in domestic football where no matter how much clubs outside of the Champions League spend, they make little headway in crashing the party. Continual advances by the biggest clubs even if the smallest leagues enable gaps between the two sets of clubs to widen, perhaps irredeemably as the seasons pass, a truism not just in the biggest of leagues.
UEFA has to address this fundamental problem by opening more avenues for other clubs to participate in club football. A simple re-introduction of the Cup Winners Cup would enable over one hundred and twenty more teams to participate in European competition if the UEFA Cup format remained the same. Whilst the revenues may not be anywhere near the size of the premier tournament, they will be more than some of those clubs currently earn.
If Platini is serious about levelling the club playing fields, he needs to act and act quickly. Failure to do so may render his prized asset as predictable and dull, everything the sponsors hate.
Tags: Champions League, Football, Soccer, UEFA
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